Stargate Atlantis-An Alternate Universe

Discovery, Accomplishment, Challenge

Stargate Atlantis

Season 3 - Discovery, Accomplishment, Challenge

An Alternate Universe

Written by Dani Harvey

"You know that stuff can give you cancer?" John had his eyebrows raised at McKay.

The team was sitting at one of the tables in the cafeteria. Once again, Rodney had the team unwillingly bewitched by his food consumption.

"It is barely 8:00 am." Teyla sounded moderately repulsed.

"What? It's popcorn! It's basically a vegetable." McKay pleaded as he popper more pieces into his mouth.

"Sure... but it is microwave popcorn." John began to explain.

"Well obviously you have to have a little butter and salt on their for flavor! It's good though. Butter? Natural. Salt? Natural.

"It's not just butter and salt though. They put chemicals in there to make it taste like that. What's the name?" John looked across the table to Ronon and Teyla. Their blank expressions betraying their lack of knowledge.

"I believe you are thinking of diacetyl." This came from Carson as he joined the table, taking a seat next to John.

"Yes! Diacetyl! Now, you can correct me if I am wrong, Doc, but when the chemical is vaporized by the microwaves in the microwave it becomes carcinagous no?"

"Exactly, actually!" Carson smiled. "It is particularly harmful if breath them in, say when smelling the delicious aroma. It can cause some pretty terrible lung diseases." Carson took a bit of his own meal: toast with an egg sprinkled with salt and pepper.

"Okay, but how likely is, really, that that will happen to me? One in a thousand?" McKay finally paused his continual stream of popcorn from bowl to mouth.

"Well actually, back on earth, as many as 14% of new cancers are lung cancers." Carson took another bite of toast.

"That's terribly unlikely. I think I will take the 86% chance that I won't get lung cancer. With that, the stream began again.

"That is an optimistic viewpoint." Teyla pointed out.

"I think there's a condition for that." John pondered, ultimately waiting for Carson to tell him what it was.

"I think we already knew McKay had a condition." Ronon got a gentle giggle of laughter from the table with that comment.

"Well, it's not a condition so to speak." Carson finished his bite of food before continuing. "The phenomenon is known as 'optimism bias'. It is the, somewhat, misguided belief that, we, as the individual are going to find ourselves experiencing the positive outcome rather than the negative." Carson explained.

"I am not really sure I understand. You are saying that we do not think bad things happen?" Teyla questioned.

"Not exactly." Carson pushed his now empty plate to the side. "it is more like we don't believe bad things wills happen to us. For example, up to 1 in every 360 people will get in a car accident. We have a tendency to believe we won't be the 1. However, car accidents happen. Therefore, everyday someone is that one."

"Okay." Teyla agreed.

Carson could see the example did not really hit home. "Another example is surgery. Most surgeries have a chance of failure, often small, but the chance is there. Let's say going into surgery there is a 96% chance of success." Carson met the each of the group members eyes with his own. "We automatically believe we will be in the 96% percent and that the surgery will go well."